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MOM's & POP's

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Austin Riggs
First Baptist Church
West Plains, MO, USA

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MOM’s and POP’s

 

BIG IDEA  ||  Summer Programming

SUPPLIES  ||  No specific supplies, your creativity will direct this category

SUMMARY  ||  MOM’s and POP’s

Welcome to MOM’s and POP’s, the answer to your sporadic summer schedule and your students’ super busy schedules!

MOM’s and POP’s is a simple adjustment to your summer programming. In this structure, you hand over the reins to your students, yikes. This program requires you to start a month or two out with MOM and POP Applications. Allow students (I restrict this to high school students) to apply to be a MOM or a POP by filling out the application and going through a short interview (I have a youth advisory team who is the ‘search committee’ for each of the MOM and POP positions).  Each team (in my experience having 4,8, or 16 teams helps make this program operate most effectively) will have a few different positions:

  • 1 MOM – Female student in your ministry who has applied and been accepted by your committee
  • 1 POP – Male student in your ministry who has applied and been accepted by your committee
  • 1 Aunt – Female college-aged student in your ministry who has applied and been accepted by your committee
  • 1 Uncle – Male college-aged student in your ministry who has applied and been accepted by your committee
  • 2 Grandparents – A married couple who you’ve asked and trust to oversee your team

These teams will compete each week of the summer (I usually make my programming 10 weeks). Students will check in each week with score keepers and they will earn points for things like: wearing team colors, bringing a Bible/notebook/pen, bringing a friend, memorizing that week’s verse, etc. our typical youth group schedule looks something like this for a 90 minute youth group:

  • Welcome/Announcements – 3 min
  • Game – 15 min
  • Worship through Song – 20 min
  • Video – 15 min
  • Small Groups – 35 min
  • Closing – 2 min
  • [Optional] – The AFTER – 90 min

The game is always team against team, and each team is given points based on the place they get. Aunts and Uncles play a huge role in setting up, creating hype, and executing the game. They can also help fill in for a MOM or POP if they have to be absent for a week. During the summer we typically go through a book of the Bible and we use a video series to work through the book. This helps the students know exactly how to prepare to lead their small groups. As I said in the introduction, yes, its the students – the MOM and POP for each team – who lead the small group discussions each week! Grandparents are there to help ensure that discussions are kept on track. Over the course of the summer, the competitive culture helps nudge students to invite their friends to come and encourages students to participate in games and in memorizing Scripture.

“The AFTER” is something we’ve added to MOMs and POPs to help give students a reason to invite their friends to come each week. These are fun games/activities that take place after youth group each week since students do not have to be home to do homework or in bed as early. Some of our AFTER events we’ve done in the past include: slip n’ slide kickball, Scavenger Hunt, Fishing, SPEED (a volleyball game), Battle of the Air Bands, Cow Tongue Football (ultimate frisbee with a cow tongue), wiffleball, kickball, Nerf War, Dodgeball, Talent Show, etc.

My favorite part of this program is seeing the MOM and POP on each team grow in their faith and as a student leader. The competition, games, and AFTER make it fun, but the chance for students to lead others students has been an incredible blessing to our youth group, as we’ve seen true discipleship continue into the fall from the relationships made from MOM’s and POP’s.

 

Audience

  • Middle School
  • High School
  • College
  • Adults

Context

  • Indoor
  • Outdoor

Group Size

  • Small group (0-10)
  • Mid sized group (11-50)
  • Large group (51+)

Requires

  • NOTHING - NO PREP REQUIRED

Level of activity

Mellow / Active

56%

Idea Originality

A Classic Worth Sharing

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